Chapter 102: Chapter 102

After dinner, Andrea called to inform Sean that she was staying at the Jones for the night. "Are you being serious, Andrea? What about tonight?" Sean scoffed loudly.

"Just because I didn't bring up the issue with Carmen doesn't mean I have totally forgotten about it. The way you made it sound right now makes me want to believe every word she said," Andrea said in a hurt tone before hanging up on him.

"Thank you for staying, child. This means a lot to me. I hope Sean is okay with the idea," Mrs. Jones said from behind her. Andrea almost jumped from fright; she exhaled loudly and smiled briefly. "It's fine."

"Today that you are officially spending the night here, I should go bond with my granddaughters while you settle in and get some rest. Goodnight, dear," she said, patting her hair lightly before walking away.

Andrea looked around the cozy-looking room, painted purple, with a queen-sized bed, a walk-in closet, and a smart TV. It looked quite simple, and much to her style, she smiled as she went into the bathroom to freshen up.

Half an hour later, Andrea emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a white bathrobe. She spent most of her time in the bathroom thinking about her little conflict with Sean, pondering if she overreacted.

She bit her lip, and her gaze fell on her phone on the bed, and only then did she notice there was a clean set of blue pajamas neatly kept on the bed.

"From mom," she read the little note beside it, and she felt a gush of warmth flood her heart.

Andrea quickly changed into her pajamas and grabbed her phone from the bed. Like she had anticipated, there were a series of unanswered calls from Sean.

...

Sean looked gloomy as he stared down at the variety of meals he had ordered boredly. After the misunderstanding he had with Andrea, his mood was totally ruined.

After taking a couple of bites, Sean abruptly rose to his feet, losing his appetite and being uninterested in his surroundings. Without Andrea here, everything felt completely meaningless to him.

On his way out, he spotted Sonny and a slender lady walking in his direction, with his arms wrapped around her thin waist. They looked happy together, as Sonny would casually steal kisses from her while she pouted cutely at him.

Sean rolled his eyes, observant that Sonny had spotted him as he saw that familiar grin playing on his lips.

"Hey bro, what's up? What are you doing here?" He demanded casually as they stopped in front of Sean.

"I should be the one asking this question. I bear in mind we conversed just last week and you were still in Japan, so why are you back here?"

Sonny coughed awkwardly and turned to look at the young, beautiful lady beside him, who had a gracious smile on her face. "Babe, meet my best friend Sean and my business partner."

Sean was just about to flare up at Sonny for throwing in his question when Alicia grinned sweetly. "Oh, he must be Andrea's husband, right?"

At the mention of his wife, Sean loosened, seeing the lady's eyes twinkle with regard as she brought up Andrea. He didn't want to offend her without knowing her relationship with his wife, so he let out a faint smile and replied, "Yes, she's my wife. Do you know her?"

"Yes, we used to be friends and roommates back in college. We lost contact, and Sonny here told me he met Andrea in New York, and I was just begging him for her contact when we spotted you," she chuckled softly as she carefully explained the situation.

Sean nodded in understanding. He cast a glance at Sonny before returning his gaze back to Alicia's face. "Don't worry, he will give it to you."

"Thank you, Mr. Wilson. It's nice meeting you, and my regards to Andrea," she replied courteously.

"Dude, why did you order so much food if you knew it would all go to waste? Mr. Young, rich, and handsome," Sonny, who had noticed the table behind Sean as they both interacted, couldn't help but taunt him.

Sean thought for a sec. He didn't want Sonny to know about his dispute with Andrea, especially in the presence of her old friend. Regardless, he knew the fool would only laugh at him before caring to render any sort of advice to him.

"Oh, I was supposed to have dinner with some investors, but unfortunately they couldn't make it tonight, and I can't possibly eat all the food by myself," Sean lied through his teeth.

"How could you do something so dumb? Were you that eager to treat them to dinner? that you couldn't even wait for their arrival." Sonny's tone was stuffed with sarcasm, making Sean have the itch to kill him.

Alicia pinched Sonny on the waist, making him scowl. She then flashed a smile at Sean. "Why don't we all have dinner together instead, since we are here?" She kindly suggested.

Looking back at the food on the table, Sean felt conflicted; the restaurant was super expensive, and each meal was almost worth a bracelet from his company, plus he didn't want the food to go to waste. Although for someone of his status, the money was equivalent to nothing, futher he had nowhere to be at this time.

He had scheduled this period for his wife, longing to have a peaceful, romantic dinner date and spend some quality time with her since he felt work has been more demanding from him lately. At the end, she had misunderstood him, thinking he was only interested in the thing in between her legs.

The thought made him nod in response, "Sure."

" Yay!" Alicia cheered cutely, and before she could turn to face Sonny, he was no longer by her side.

"Babe, why did you invite him to eat with us? I thought it was just you and me tonight. You could have just let him leave so we could consume these leftovers in peace." Sonny lamented, already grabbing the cutlery.

"Are your eyesight even functioning? The both of us can't eat all of these ourselves." She rolled her eyeballs at him.

"Just look at you; if we can't finish the food, we could have packed them up as takeout, babe," he retorted, refusing to give in to her.

"You make it sound like you are so poor that you can't afford food. You know what, Sonny? I'm starting to rethink our relationship; even after three years, you haven't changed a bit." Alicia's voice started rising up as pent-up anger from nowhere rushed into her system.

"Please not now, Babe. Let's dig in first so you can have more energy to shout at me however you want." Sonny sounded calm as he pulled her into his arms.

Settling down on the seat contradictory to theirs, Sean let out a deep sigh. He brought out his phone, took photos of the food, and posted them on his Instagram account.

This was something he hadn't done for ages, even after having a million+ followers on his account, but for some reason he found himself tapping on the 'post' icon on his screen. Only then did he realize he was doing it for Andrea to see; after all, he knew her late-night habit of scrolling through social media before bed.

At the thought of his wife, his heart ached, and all that was remaining was the terrible feeling of disappointment and loneliness. He scrolled through her Instagram account, going through all of her past posts and pictures.

***

Finding it difficult to fall asleep, Andrea came downstairs to have a glass of water while the twins were asleep. On her way back upstairs, Jacob emerged from his room downstairs and smiled at her. "Is there anything you need?" He asked attentively.

Andrea was stunned and taken aback to see him dressed in his comfy nightwear. Mrs. Jones had previously specified that Jacob stays alone and hardly sleeps at home; further, his sudden appearance came as a shock to her.

"Oh no, it's nothing. I just came down to have a glass of water," she hurriedly explained as she composed herself.

'' Let me guess, you can't fall asleep, isn't it?"

' Yeah,' Andrea nodded her head in embarrassment. Luckily, the lights in the living room were dimmed, and she was certain he couldn't see the pink shade on her cheeks.

"Same goes for me. How about that movie night you refused for the sake of your man? Are you down for it tonight?"

"Sean isn't the reason I turned you down; I wasn't just interested at that time." Andrea lied, feeling suffocated by the situation at hand.

" Whatever. Thank you for staying and for making Mom happy. I haven't seen her like this in ages." Jacob's voice was soft as he spoke about their mother.

"Is that why you also stayed back for the night?" Andrea asked thoughtfully.

"I will go get some popcorn and drinks," Jacob said, strolling into the kitchen while Andrea settled herself on the couch.

As Jacob was busy pouring the freshly made popcorn into a white bowl, Andrea grabbed her phone, and out of her daily habit, she logged into her Instagram account, scrolling through her feeds until she came across the CEO Wilson post.

"Dinner with friends,"

Andrea smiled faintly, about to exit the app, when she examined the photo closely and caught sight of a lady-like hand on the table. Recalling that Carmen had black nail tints on today that looked like these very ones made her body shake violently in anger.